South Australia artist Sera Waters’ practice examines ongoing settler-colonial homemaking legacies, specifically hand-craft traditions and familial patterns.

About this new body of work, Sera writes: “These artworks dwell in entangled lineages from the 1930s. Specifically, they respond to translated German family letters written in the lead up to and aftermath of World War II, between my great grandparents and their children (two in Australia, and one in an English prisoner of war camp). As a descendant living in differently alarming times, grappling with how my ancestors reckoned, survived, acted and witnessed, propels this body of work.

To be collared and cuffed infers dressing finely, tidily and smartly, as well as being restricted and controlled by conventions, or worse, by those wielding power. Collars and cuffs are also textile sites where bodies emerge, and grime and stains congregate, revealing the messy human goings on under neatened outward appearances. Across my artworks, grime, stains and shadows spread, made from substances, repetitive patterns and collage (a destructive process of severing and cutting, followed by fragmented reconstructing). Hand-stitches and intimate techniques take over repurposed textiles, and range from blackwork embroidery, sampling, latch-hook rugmaking, applique, and fabric staining.”

Sera Waters, Parts of Past Portents: flesh wound, 2025-26, various repurposed wools, found and handmade beads, 70 x 50 cm irreg. Photography by Grant Hancock